Financial services companies are wasting no time adopting Amazon’s Echo smart speakers, which the tech giant announced would be coming to Canada in December.
On Wednesday BMO and Manulife announced partnerships with Amazon that would allow customers to use its Alexa voice assistant for banking and benefits.
BMO’s “skill” for the platform (a skill is roughly equivalent to an app on a smartphone) gives customers access to banking information such as nearby ATM locations, up-to-date foreign exchange rates and information on BMO products and digital channels. Customers can set it up by asking Alexa, Amazon’s voice AI, or through the Alexa Skill Store.
Manulife’s skill will allow customers to track their benefit account balances by asking Alexa.
Other financial services companies, including RBC and PayPal, already have partnerships with Apple’s voice AI platform Siri.
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